James Flint
James McGraw, better known as James Flint, is a pirate captain in the Caribbean, known throughout the West Indies as being the most feared of all the Golden Age pirates. Originally an officer of the Royal Navy, he eventually became one of the most successful pirate captains in the Bahamas. His charisma masks a deep, simmering rage, and a propensity towards breathtaking violence. In order to hold off the British and Spanish forces he’ll make himself ruler of Nassau through any means necessary. To accomplish his goals, he started the hunt for the Urca de Lima, the richest Spanish treasure galleon in the New World. Biography Royal Navy Most of Flint's youth is shrouded in mystery. He is the son of a carpenter and his family was not well off. His real name is James McGraw. Once a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, he served under the command of Admiral Hennessey. In 1705 he met Thomas Hamilton, an aristocrat who wanted to clean up piracy in the Bahamas and make New Providence Island a British colony. He began an affair with Hamilton, and people thought the affair he had was actually with his wife Miranda, with whom he was also having an affair. Thomas's political enemies exiled him and "made Thomas disappear" using the affair as an excuse. Flint went to Nassau with Miranda to finish what Thomas started. Flint the Pirate Once he reached New Providence Island, Flint quickly became the captain of a crew, having met Hal Gates in a tavern and persuading Gates and his crew to let him lead. He eventually became captain of the mighty Walrus. Over the next ten years, he became the most successful pirate on the island, bringing to Nassau more booty than all other pirate captains. He maintained the relationship with Miranda Barlow, who also settled on New Providence. However, stories soon arose among Flint's sailors about Miranda being a witch who has enslaved Flint to do her bidding. On one occasion, Flint and his crew followed the merchantman Maria Aleyne for months, believing that her cargo was worth a fortune. However, when the pirates boarded the merchant ship, they discovered that the booty was much smaller than they expected, and some of them noticed that Flint had slain two unarmed passengers, and later gave report about their deaths to Miranda. It was later revealed that the reason the Maria Aleyne was targeted was because she carried Lord Alfred Hamilton, whom Flint desired to kill in revenge for the death of his friend Thomas and for his and Miranda's own exile. The Hunt for the Urca In 1715, Flint was leading an attack against an unnamed merchant ship. As his crew is butchering the merchant crew, he exhibited restraint by calling an early stop to the slaughter. Taking control of the ship, Flint went to the captured captain's quarters in search of the shipping schedule of the Urca de Lima. To the dismay of Flint and his quartermaster Gates, the page had been torn from the book. In the Captain's quarters, Gates informed Flint that he believed Singleton was very close to having enough votes to depose Flint from his captaincy. Gates stated that the crew were desperate for larger prizes and felt that Flint is no longer effective. With the schedule seemingly lost, Flint told Gates that he planned to get a copy of the schedule from Richard Guthrie, the chief black market merchant in Nassau. With the Walrus' Boatswain Billy Bones accompanying him, Flint went to Guthrie's mansion and requested an audience with Guthrie. At the meeting with Guthrie, Flint told him about his desire to capture the Urca de Lima and about his pursuit of the missing schedule. The meeting was interrupted by several members of the British Royal Navy, led by Captain Hume of the Scarborough. This lead to a confrontation where Guthrie was shot in the shoulder. Flint decided it was best to take the wounded Guthrie to the Walrus. Once aboard the ship, Gates told Flint that it was time for the vote. Before the vote, Flint retired to his cabin for a moment, where he discovered a white feather that had been placed in a drawer as an alarm. Realizing that it was likely that a member of his own crew had the schedule, Flint devised a scheme that would hopefully help him defeat Singleton. Flint accused Singleton of having undermined their effort to capture the treasure ship by stealing the schedule from the logbook. The two men then engaged in a duel. During the sword fight, Singleton initially had the upper hand but once Flint struck Singleton across the face with a small cannonball, the tide turned and Flint beat Singleton to a bloody pulp. Still hovering over the defeated Singleton, Flint pulled a piece of paper from the clothes of Singleton and handed it to Bones. Bones opened the paper and saw that it was blank. Bones' loyalty was effectively being put to the test by Flint handing him the paper. Bones could either expose Flint for being a liar or could claim that it was the missing schedule, exonerating Flint. Bones chose to stick by Flint and told the crew that it was indeed the missing schedule. Flint then pumps up the crew when he, for the first time, was honest with them about his mission to capture the Urca de Lima. He claimed that the ship was of such value that it will make them "princes of the New World". Despite winning the duel, Flint still had a bigger problem on his hand: finding the stolen schedule. He eventually realized that it could only be one member of his crew: the cook John Silver. Flint chased Silver to the shore and eventually came to find out that Silver was planning on selling the schedule to Charles Vane and Jack Rackham. Flint would eventually catch Silver and was horrified to find out that Silver had burned the schedule, but had committed it to memory. Flint ended up taking the wounded Richard Guthrie to the house of his lover, Miranda Barlow, for recovery. He asked Miranda to take care of Guthrie while he went about preparing for the expedition against the treasure ship. In Nassau, Eleanor Guthrie promises to finance the expedition. Flint must find a second ship to accompany him and it was determined that the best choice would be the Ranger, Charles Vane's ship. However, before they set sail, Eleanor blacklisted Vane and made much of the Ranger crew switch to Flint. Before they set out on the expedition, Flint requested bigger guns for his ship. Eleanor promised that she would get them from the merchant ship the Andromache. When Eleanor is betrayed by her father Richard, the Andromache left port with her guns still aboard. Flint decided that he must chase after her to get the guns for his expedition. When Flint eventually caught up with the Andromache, he boarded her but found out that her captain, Dyfed Bryson had alerted the Royal Navy ship Scarborough of her location in anticipation of Flint attacking her. As the crew of the Walrus struggled to find a way into the Andromache's hold where Bryson and other members of the Andromache crew were hiding, Flint appeared to be losing a slight grip on loyal members of his crew such as Logan, who openly questioned Flint's decision to stay aboard the Andromache as daylight approached and the Scarborough drew nearer. However, Gates once again displayed his loyalty by punching Logan in the face and reminding the crew of their sworn duty to follow Flint to the death in battle. Eventually, after retrieving the guns from the Andromache and attempting to escape, Flint realized that a mast from the Andromache had broken off and gotten tangled with the Walrus. While Flint and Bones struggled to free the ship from the broken mast, Flint questioned Bones about a letter that Bones had found in Bryson's cabin from Mrs. Barlow. Before Bones could say anything about the content of the letter, he was swept overboard and was presumed dead. After they are safe, the crew hold a funeral as sea for the men who died, with Captain Flint presiding over it. After returning to Nassau, Flint met up with Eleanor and discussed the changes to the islands leadership while he was gone, and bring up the fact that her father was responsible for the trouble Flint went through getting the cannons. As he was heading out, Eleanor pointed out to him that Silver had been of help to Eleanor and that she promised him that she would inform Flint not to kill him once he was done assisting him. After the meeting, Flint returned to the Walrus and was cornered by Gates in his office. Gates questions Flint about the letter Billy found before his death, and then questions Flint on the matter of Billy dying really being an accident. When Gates tells Flint that he is going to tell everything about the letter and Bones to the crew, Flint stops him and admits that he is taking the prize money for himself. He states that he is going to put the prize money in a warehouse and then sequester a portion of it away from the crew. He says that he knows the crew will just drink, whore, and piss all their money away. He wants to keep a portion to be used for creating a safe place for the men to live in. Gates finally states that he will sail with Flint to take the prize, but after that, they are done working together. When the Urca turns out to not be where she is supposed to be, Flint decides to nevertheless attack a Spanish Man'o'War that has come out of nowhere, for he believes that it is the consort of the Urca de Lima. When Gates questions this line of thinking, Flint strangles him and kills him. When Flint attempts to attack the Spanish Man'o'War, he is stopped by Dufresne, who begins a mutiny against Flint. Flint is then shot by Dufresne when he tries to fire one of the ships guns on his own. The subsequent battle goes against the Walrus and she is beached, having nearly been destroyed by the Spanish ship. When he woke up, Dufresne showed him the Urca broken in half on the nearby beach, and the soldiers from the Man O' War collecting the gold. The New Hunt Now stranded on the shores of Florida and removed from captaincy, Flint explained to his former crew that their only chance to escape was to capture the Spanish warship, because the majority of her crew was on the beach. In exchange for a pardon for his crimes against the crew, he volunteered to be one of the two who would swim to the ship and kill the guards. John Silver agreed to join Flint. Once they got aboard the ship, Flint and Silver managed to kill all the guards, but they were captured by the Spanish. Silver seemingly betrayed Flint but then saved his life. The pirates then attacked and took over the ship, sailing for Nassau. Later that night, Dufresne told Flint that once the ship reaches Nassau, he and Silver would have to leave the crew. However, during the journey, Flint advised Dufresne not to attack any merchant ship until they get more recruits. When Durfresne did the opposite, the crew of the attacked merchant ship resisted the attackers, and Flint ordered the pirates to open fire. Later, the crew voted to have Flint reinstalled as captain. Once the ship reached Nassau, Flint and Silver went ashore, to ask Captain Hornigold to join them on their journey to the Urca's wreck, as hey would need at least one more ship to defeat the Spanish soldiers who guarded the treasure. To their surprise, they saw Hornigold's pirate flag flying over the small shack and not over the fort as they expected. Personality Flint is very charismatic and powerful leader of men. He is a skilled and cunning fighter. Mr. Gates goes as far to say that he is incredibly strong in a fight, even exceeding Charles Vane's abilities in combat. Part of what distances him from his crew is his classical education. Flint is also a cunning manipulator, shrewd and ruthless. He is at times mistrustful of his own crew, believing himself to be the only person intelligent enough to understand and carry out his noble goal - raiding a Spanish treasure galleon of five million dollars worth of gold in order to finance the militarization of Nassau. His charisma masks a deep, simmering rage, and a propensity towards breathtaking violence, in his desire to get what he wants; revenge against the whole of England. Nothing will stand in the way of his plan; not Billy, not Gates. Trivia * Flint is a fictitious character created originally by Robert Louis Stevenson. * His first name is revealed as James in Miranda Barlow's letter to the authorities in Massachusetts.VI. Memorable Quotes Appearances *''I.'' *''II.'' *''III.'' *''IV.'' *''V.'' *''VI.'' *''VII.'' *''VIII.'' *''IX.'' *''X.'' *''XI.'' *''XII.'' *''XIII.'' *''XIV.'' *''XV.'' *''XVI.'' *''XVII.'' *''XVIII.'' References Category:Major Characters Category:Captains Category:Male Characters Category:Living Characters Category:Pirate Category:Walrus Crew Category:Characters Category:Royal Navy members